Archive for the art Category

Shadowscapes is the portfolio website of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, an incredible artist and illustrator. Stephanie focuses on depicting fantasy scenes and creatures, working mostly in luminous, multi-layered watercolours. I’ve been following her progress for close on 10 years now, and am constantly amazed at what she is able to achieve with such a difficult medium. The detail she packs into each piece is impressive.

I’ve always been more than a little “anti” watercolours. I think a lot of it has to do with the subject matter most watercolour artists choose – landscapes leave me cold, cold, cold – but it’s also the way the paint behaves: so fluid and loose and uncontrolled. When I draw or paint it’s usually highly-detailed, executed with a mechanical pencil, ink drafting pens or 000 paint brushes. Nothing loose or fluid about that!

Lately though, I’ve had the urge to paint.

With watercolours.

No one is more shocked than me! So I’ve done the only logical thing and ordered Stephanie’s painting guide, “Dreamscapes”. Stephanie’s ink drawings are equally beautiful and I am eagerly awaiting my copy of “Inklings” that I ordered along with “Dreamscapes”. And now there’s “Inklings II”!

Shadowscapes Tarot: Temperance

What I am most excited about is the release of the “Shadowscapes Tarot” sometime… whenever! The paintings are exquisite, capturing the meanings of the cards in a style and manner that is very true to the Shadowscapes world, while still remaining faithful to the tarot tradition. I’ll definitely need to buy 2 decks: one to look at touch and examine hundreds of times until the cards wear out, and another to frame. I don’t know how the details of each piece are going to translate onto small cards, but hopefully whoever manufactures the deck will have enough experience to do them justice.

Whether you’re a fan of watercolour or fantasy art or not, I highly recommend spending an hour… or two… or three… browsing through the many enchanting pieces in the Shadowscapes galleries [most are available for purchase as prints – good luck choosing a favourite!].
It might just change your mind.

Whether I’m in need of inspiration, figure reference for drawing or just plain something-yummy-to-feast-my-eyes-on, I am never disappointed with vintage stock images. Even though some of these images are 100 years old (or more!), there is something timeless about them. The women seem to be unfailingly beautiful – even the “plain” ones – graceful and poised. Maybe because the images are so distant and therefore somewhat foreign, it is possible to look at them more objectively? The different physical types represented is refreshing too; very true to the “pinup creed”! What is especially interesting is to see how little things have changed; the same titillating scenes are played out then as are popular now, often quite graphically.

Quintessential flapper sass!

While these images are decades before the 40’s-50’s pinup era, they are definitely a useful reference source. Artists, models and photographers alike can find inspiration for both for poses, as well as themes and scene ideas. There are newsgroups and websites dedicated to vintage stock; some free, some pay sites. These are a few of my favourites from deviantArt, a quick and easy place to begin (you might need to sign up for an account if users have marked the images as “adult content”):

“Hey Oscar Wilde!” is an art blog (of sorts) by Steven Gettis. Now in its tenth incarnation since being launched in June, 1998, it is:

“AN EXTENSION OF A PERSONAL ART COLLECTION OF VARIOUS ARTISTS INTERPRETING THEIR FAVOURITE LITERARY FIGURE/AUTHOR/CHARACTER THAT HAS BEEN ACCUMULATED SINCE 03.1998.”

Barbarella, Noam Chomsky, Phileas Fogg – they’re all there, and the list of artists who’ve contributed to this collection is astounding. You’re sure to find something by one of your favourites AND discover a whole new set of artists to explore further. A complete index of artists and subjects is divided into 2 linked lists for easy searching and each image post is followed by links to the artist’s website (where available) and further information on the subject they’ve chosen.

This 10 (and a bit) years old collection guarantees days’ and days’ worth of inspiration!